Description

In 2004 Malawi began to offer antiretroviral therapy to anyone who needed it. This undertaking would have been ambitious for any nation, but it was unprecedented coming from one of the poorest countries in the world.

Health on Delivery examines this introduction of state-provided antiretroviral therapy from an ethnographic perspective. Moving from World Health Organization boardrooms in Geneva to clinics held under trees in rural Malawi, it studies the patients, healthcare providers, and policy-makers involved, considering how the rollout has impacted their lives and professions. In doing so, it examines both the challenges and successes of an ambitious attempt to provide universal HIV treatment with limited money, infrastructure, and human resources. As well as an important case study, the book also offers an analytic framework to address the processes by which global policy is made and implemented.

Engagingly written, Health on Delivery will be interesting reading for students and scholars of both anthropology and public health, as well as related disciplines such as geography, international politics and world development. It will also appeal to the general reader interested in global health policies and world development.

Reaching Out for Health: Strategies to Improve HIV Care in Village Settings

Conclusion - A Lesson in Healthcare Delivery: How Global Policy Translates into HIV Care, and What We Can Learn From It.

About the Author

Anat Rosenthal is a lecturer in the Department of Health Systems Management and the Tamar Golan Africa Centre at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. A medical anthropologist, she studies global health policy and healthcare delivery in resource-limited settings.

About the Series

This series publishes books at the intersection of medical anthropology and global public health that use robust theoretical and ethnographic insights to develop practical public health solutions. Using accessible language to communicate complex global health problems, they examine concrete failures and successes in global health through an anthropological lens emphasizing historical, ecological, political, and sociocultural contexts. They also showcase leading methodological approaches, both qualitative and quantitative. The series publishes books in two formats: Tightly orchestrated edited volumes consisting of original writing by leading scholars advance major themes and methods and provide instructors with important new tools for integrating medical anthropology and global public health into the curricula of both disciplines. Short, single-authored books focused on a particular global health problem are constructed in three sections: a broad introduction to the problem and literature to date; a case study illustrating key issues and methods; and constructive solutions, including broader implications for application in public health programs.